Cyrano de Bergerac
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Cititour.com Review
The last time New York audiences caught Douglas Hodge onstage, the British actor was looking ravishing in mascara, wigs and sequins. He was playing Albin, the sensitive drag queen who just wants to be loved for who he is, in the splashy musical La Cage aux Folles. A similar theme runs through Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand's late-19th-century play, now on Broadway courtesy of the Roundabout Theatre Company, and Hodge again embodies a larger-than-life persona to exquisite heights. But it nearly gets overshadowed by Jamie Lloyd's whizbang production and a difficult verse translation by Ranjit Bolt.
It's the love triangle at the center of this epically tragic love story that has come to define it. Cyrano, the large-beaked titular character (who has a pig's snout for a nose here), can't shake his love for the beautiful Roxane (played by French actress Clémence Poésy of Harry Potter fame). Still, he gives the young, handsome but callow Christian (newcomer Kyle Soller) the words with which to woo and win her. The romantic intrigue doesn't kick in until toward the end of the first act. Before that we see Cyrano brandishing a sword as he drives a braggart from the stage of a theater, pining for Roxane and hoping she returns his love, and interacting with Christian and the other cadets in their regiment.
Bolt's florid language keeps plot and character at an uncomfortable distance, and Lloyd's production suffers from excessive bursts of chaos and commotion. But this is a vehicle for Hodge, an actor who can be gloriously spontaneous without sacrificing precision and depth. And with the lovely Poésy, who makes Roxane heartfelt, grounded and never flighty, Cyrano reaches its apex in its final solemn scene. The path it takes to get to such an affecting moment, however, is too long by a nose.
By Diane Snyder
Visit the Site
http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Shows-Events/Cyrano-de-Bergerac.aspx
Cast
Douglas Hodge, Clémence Poésy, Patrick Page, Max Baker, Bill Buell, Geraldine Hughes, Kyle Soller, John Behlmann, Peter Bradbury, Mikaela Feely-Lehmann, Andy Grotelueschen, Frances Mercanti-Anthony, Tim McGeever, Drew McVety, Ben Steinfeld
Open/Close Dates
Opening 9/14/2012
Closing 11/25/2012
Box Office
212-719-1300
Theatre Info
American Airlines Theatre
227 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
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